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I gape. “Those are expensive.”
“Like I said, someone else will have a nice gift.” He surveys me carefully, slowly, and my body spikes in each spot his eyes roam over. I shift, something deep in my gut pulsing. “I don’t think you have anything you need to take off. That dress should be light and isn’t long enough to tangle around your legs.” He starts toward the edge, then pauses, looking at me over his shoulder. “You can swim, right?”
I roll my eyes. “Yes, I can swim. You think I grew up by the ocean and never learned?”
“Never know.” He beckons me closer. “Come here.”
I debate standing my ground, refusing to give into this idiotic idea he crafted, but I find myself shuffling forward. The steps are small, half the size of my regular ones, and my feet feel like they’ve been dunked in cement. Each step closer to the edge makes my heart race faster and faster.
“That’s it,” Beau coaxes. “Just a little more. I promise I won’t let you fall.”
“Swear it?”
His gaze is completely earnest as he says, “On my title and everything I own, Briar. I will not let anything happen to you.”
And when he says it, there is not a single doubt in my mind that he means it. Tears sting my eyes, but I blink them away. I take one more step forward, and another, until I’m side by side with Beau.
Standing on the edge is completely different than just the few yards away that I was before. My lungs seize, and I clamp a hand around my throat. Wind roars toward us, spinning my skirt around my thighs and deafening my ears.
“No, no, no—”
“It’s okay—”
“Why am I even doing this? I didn’t need to follow you up here. I could’ve stayed in the car.” I frantically run my trembling hands through my hair. It’s not lost on me that I didn’t have to do any of this. I didn’t need to leave the meeting, didn’t need to get in the car, certainly didn’t need to hike up this trail. And the thing is, I know I shouldn’t have done any of it.
But I did it because I seem to forget about the things I should do when I’m with Beau. It’s like some part of my brain just shuts off when he’s around and I just do things in the moment.
“Because”—Beau grabs my wrists and puts them between us—“I think deep down, yelling beyond the panic in your head, is a voice trying to tell you that you want to do this. That you can do this. And that you might even like it once you do.”
“I don’t think so—”
“You don’t ever test yourself, Briar, do you? Have you ever done anything outside of your comfort zone? Done something you shouldn’t have? Snuck out? Got drunk? Disobeyed anyone?”
“Y-yes,” I stumble. “I mean, you were there—”
He shakes his head sharply. “No. Not when we were kids, and not our time on the roof.”
I blink rapidly, trying to think. Surely I can come up with something to prove him wrong, but as I flip through the catalog of my life… I come up short.
His face softens. “Allow yourself just once to do something that really, truly scares you. That allows you to have a little fun.”
I turn my face toward the sea. Crystalline water beckons me closer, the surface set ablaze by the setting sun. We won’t have much time left. Soon, the sun will be down completely and it won’t be safe to jump.
Is it even safe to jump when it’s light out?
Beau lets go of my arms as I take a few tiny steps down to the edge. Not far enough to risk slipping, but enough to peer down below.
The sight sends my stomach flip-flopping, and I whimper, watching the water lap against the hillside. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
A steady hand appears at my back. “Yes, you can. I think you’d surprise yourself by what you’re capable of if you only allowed it.”
A gust of wind blows my hair back and I startle. “It’s just so far!”
“Don’t look down, then.”
“That’s impossible!”
His hand engulfs mine and squeezes it painfully tight, but it’s enough to snap me out of my panic. I pull my gaze from the crashing waves below to the crushing blue of his eyes. They hold mine steady while simultaneously sending my heart into a tailspin.
